Flying Lessons (WC)

 

(Wendy Cabell, published in Writers At Play Presents: Our Legacy, edited by Daisy Barrett-Nash, Equal Arts, 2022. Originally from September 8, 2021, feast day of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and also of the Kursk-Root Icon of the Mother of God (and other Icons). Also the second day of Rosh Hashanah, the "head of the year" (first day here); as well as commemorating the (3760 BC) first very Shabbat on the seventh day of creation. Image from here.)

Originally from 2021, revisited now in loving memory of my Mother

Flying Lessons

 You can fly!

         You can fly!

         You can fly!

         --Peter Pan

 

The Wing’s the thing, unspoken mantra of my Mother-–

sorrow hidden, this her balm. There’s the spoken mantras too:

Okay, Baby Angels, we need a mini-miracle.

Survival 101.

Let your Guardian Angel talk to his Guardian Angel.

Conflict resolution.

If you ever see a frown, do not let it stay.

Cognitive therapy,

as to this restless soul a feather's brush. 

Her hand on my forehead. Slow dawn 

of soft smile, knowing,

Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly. 

Transcendence. 

(Meanwhile naming daughter after Disney,

         There it is, Wendy,

         second star to the right

         and straight on

         till morning!

         

but digressing.) And remembering, night not so long ago. 

I’m on the bed resting, stretching. Phone nestled by ear. 

True confessions: Mom’s climb out of depression 

just noticing the littlest of things. Magic's glow

tween thank and you — it got her through. 

So now I’m telling you, floats her voice.

    If after wings, your blessings sing -–

             The Wing's the thing.

*”If you ever see a frown…” is paraphrased from Daniel Taylor’s Smiles .“Angels can fly because…” is quoted from G.K. Chesterson’s Orthodoxy. “You can fly!...” is quoted from Walt Disney’s Peter Pan.

**From prompt: Ponder the life lesson(s) that have meant the most to you. Freewrite about the setting where learned them, the person learned them through and his/her characteristics, the way the lesson(s) were imparted, the impact the lesson(s) have had upon you. Underline striking lines, bring in more sensory detail, and notice if a theme word or line emerges to repeat. Weave in a couple lines further zeroing in on the/a "moment" this lesson came through, perhaps using synesthesia. Then craft the above into a poem. From Daisy Barrett-Nash’s Legacy Poetry, July 28, August 4, and September 1, 2021; revisited and revised September 8, 2021